Today, I have reached saturation point, and my heart feels desperate. Every single
time I listen to a news report (which is almost every day) there are at least 3
cases of crime against small children. If it is not child and baby rape, then it’s
murder, child prostitution and trafficking, children being ransomed and tortured
for money, children being invited into “Lolly Lounges” and other drug infested places
and gross neglect and negligence. My heart is overwhelmed. How do we sit, day after
day and turn a deaf ear? These atrocities are increasing daily and I believe it
is time for the children’s ministry fraternity to take action. My greatest fear
is that we hear these things so regularly, that it leaves us unmoved and we shrug
our shoulders or shake our heads, but do nothing about it. The children need us
now, more than ever before!

It is so easy to look at the situation and feel overwhelmed by it. You ask yourself
the question....”just what can I do.” The Lord reminded me today that we are in
possession of the most powerful tool on the earth. It brings people to their knees,
it stops murderers in their tracks and it is known to conquer all. Prayer!

I am asking all children’s workers today to join me in a prayer commitment for the
children of Sub-Saharan Africa (because these things are not just happening in South
Africa.) I know that we are all busy, but if we could just take 5 or 10 minutes
per day to pray and stand in the gap for these precious lives, this prayer chain
could become a huge onslaught against the kingdom of darkness. The more people we
have praying at any one time, the more impact we can make against the horrific situation.

What I am asking is that you set your cell phone alarm to go off at a certain time
each day, and that you stop what you are doing and intercede for the children for
5 or 10 minutes. If you can pray for a longer time, then praise the Lord, but at
some time of your day, if you could join your hearts with us here at Jackson’s Ridge,
our prayers together, will make a difference.

I am going to ask you to fill in a commitment form. There is something about making
a physical commitment that makes it more serious. My deepest desire is that we can
manage to get enough people praying that we have at least 1 person praying every
moment of every day. Sharing the load and joining our hearts together will be the
key. By filling in a time for us, it will help us to fill in the gaps as we try
to get a 24 hour prayer vigil in place.

Please join us. Ask the Lord what kind of commitment you can make, and then fill
in the slot you can take. If you can take more than one slot, or you can take a
full hour every day, that would be great, but surely asking just 10 minutes of your
day to stand in the gap is a do-able commitment. I will try to send out some prayers
that you can use on a weekly basis, but mostly we need to pray for the protection
of our children. Ask God to encamp His angels around every child and do spiritual
warfare against the powers of darkness that seek to destroy and hurt and damage
our children. If you know of anyone who would like to join this prayer vigil, then
please forward this email onto them and ask them to send me an email.

If you make a commitment and find that you are unable to keep it, it’s no problem,
but please just drop us a line so that we can fill in that spot.

Thank you considering joining this Intercessory Prayer group and for being willing
to stand in the gap for the children of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Just before I close, if you are in the USA or any other part of the world and receiving
this, when you respond, please just give us your local time that you will pray and
what area you are from, and we will work out what time it will fit into our prayer
calendar. We plan to post this on our website with regular updates on how the prayer
vigil is going, so check in to our website from time to time to catch up. If you
have a testimony or prayer victory to share about the children, please email it
to us.